Reviews

Sep 27, 2017
***THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW***

Classroom of the Elite is a curious one. I was so engrossed with its plot and characters early on. However at some point in the middle it started to feel really trite.

Story: 3.5/10

First and foremost the concept of the show is really good in my opinion. Students are placed into 4 different classes based of some tests at the beginning of the show. For there and onwards, they must work as a class to earn points. If your class earns enough points, you will dethrone the class above yours (D, C, B, and A). For this plot device to work, there needs to be a certain level of “seriousness” present. I thought that the first half of the show pulled this off really well. Yes there was the comedy elements thrown in but it was pretty secondary. However, around the time that the first fanservice episode showed up (the pool episode), something was starting to form that would really degrade the show for me...

The show started to drift away from what I thought was great about it. I think it was a combination of the show throwing all the classes together for a final conflict and also the characters starting to get a little stale. The first bit of the show only really focuses on Class D and C. There are other characters that show up in some minor roles but they don't play a huge role in the first conflict. The show really shines here because as the underdogs (Class D) you want to cheer them on and have them take down Goliath (Class C). This is also the part of the show where you really get to know the main players in Class D. The second half of the season strays away from this and it just ends up feeling like a real mess. The last arc had moments that took too long to resolve while also feeling rushed at the same time.

Overall the last arc as well as the two episode lead-up to that arc (essentially the second half of the show) paled in comparison to the first half of the season.

Art/Animation: 9.1/10

This show looks really fucking good. First off, the art. The character models, clothing, and coloring are some next level stuff. You can tell a lot about each character based on their character model features. The coloring (especially the eyes) are done really well and in unique ways. The backgrounds also look very well done.

Animation is pretty good. The scenes with lots of motion are pretty detailed and smooth. The rest is pretty good. Some stiffness in some of the dialogue scenes but for an airing anime it did more than good enough.

My only real grip with the art direction of the show is this; what's with all the large breasts? Now look I'm not complaining about seeing some nice female figures but when every main female lead is rocking at least a D cup and the scenes (and opening) are extenuating this area of their body, it starts to get in the way of the show (especially since the show is, for the most part, a serious story). The fact that I had to bring this up shows that it was an inhibitor on my overall experience.

Sound: 7/10

It's so bizarre. This show has both some of the best songs I've heard in recent anime as well as some really generic ones. The opening and a number of other tracks are goosebump worthy. There are however a couple of really generic and almost cringy sounding song selections. They played mostly during very obvious fanservice scenes which is a real shame.

The miscellaneous sound design was very, very good. The battle sounds as well as just the small things you might not noticed seemed to have had a lot of care put into them.

Characters: 7/10

The characters are absolutely crafted really well. I enjoyed pretty much all of the main cast. A fair number of people seem to have a real issue with Ayanokouji's personality (the monotone, OP MC trope) but honestly I cannot get enough of him. His scenes with Horikita and Kikyou was one of the main reasons why I enjoyed the show so much. The way they interacted with each other as well as the character development they received was really well done. However...how the characters were utilized was almost abysmal in the second half of the show. It was such a waste to see these interesting characters just sort of wasted in the fanservice and final arc episodes. There were also other characters such as Honami that I really wished we could have learned more about.

Overall: 6.8/10

This show had the potential to be really fucking awesome. Due to the fall off of interesting content, the miss-use of interesting characters, and general pacing issues in the final half, the show is unfortunately relegated to just “good”. This season seems to have this recurring issue seeing how I have similar thoughts with Knights & Magic. The show is worth watching, just don't expect a lot from its ending.

Enjoyment: 6.5/10

Thanks for reading my review! If you liked my writing style, would like to see some other reviews, or just want to talk, please stop by my page!

Sincerely,
Awesome Drummer
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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